Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
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year 5, quarter 3
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With Alterna cast, Somnus was left to clench his fingers outward as the ring pulled on his magic to feed the portal. The force always made him gasp--he didn’t often like to rely on the ring for that reason--but it was worth weakening himself to send Ardyn to where he deserved. As the magic closed in around the red-haired man, his choking motions and difficulty breathing seemed genuine, but the words that he called out were pure drivel. Somnus twitched in irritation that Ardyn was trying to taunt him even now.
“Is there anything you take seriously anymore?” He called in annoyance, though he didn’t really expect an answer. The void was closing in around him, and though it was difficult to see in the dim light of the simmering flames, his brother flickered from view at the same time that the spell closed and Somnus was left gasping for breath as the ring released its pull on his magic.
The clearing felt almost unnervingly quiet now--Somnus didn’t think that Ardyn had used to love the sound of his own voice as much as he appeared to now--and he listened to the tiny crackle of flames before he cautiously took a few steps forward to investigate. His spell had worked--there was little doubt about that from the patch of bare dirt where the grass had been ripped out where Ardyn had been standing. Turning in a slow circle, he verified further that the man was nowhere to be found before he finally relaxed enough to lower his sword a few inches. It looked like there would be no body this time either.
Not that burying him in a foreign world had much point. He didn’t really deserve to rest next to their parents anymore either.
A laugh suddenly erupted from somewhere above him, and though Somnus tensed in place, he wasn’t expecting the dark energy that sprang up beneath his feet and immediately obscured his senses. Pulling in his arms to protect his face, he let out a yell of pain that was swallowed by the blackness. Every inch of his body howled in protest at the cold, numbing pain until he was nearly ready to beg the astrals for mercy. It was almost a relief when the magic was suddenly cleaved in two in front of him, even though the harsh bite of a blade against his chest sent him reeling back.
Through the stinging pain, Somnus was dimly aware that he’d been cut and that blood was trickling down towards his stomach. He tried to raise his sword to block the next swing, but he was still too dazed from the magic. Another slash sent a second hot spike of pain down his chest before a leg collided solidly with his stomach, knocking the breath out of him and sending him sprawling back against the damp grass.
Ardyn’s taunting voice reached his ears before a boot planted itself firmly against his chest and twisted. Somnus let out a yell as the harsh movement ripped open his wounds even further. Under the pain, he was dimly aware of the sticky sensation of blood welling up through his shirt, and his free hand gripped the leather around the man’s ankle as if he could throw him off.
“At my mercy as I was at yours. Shall I return the favor?”
For the first time, Somnus felt a flicker of fear as he looked up into the yellow eyes leering down at him. It truly felt like dealing with a ravenous daemon wearing his brother’s skin. Of course the thing was dangerous, but Somnus hadn’t thought there was a possibility that he could lose. In all of his campaigns, he always came out on top, or at least had the right men with him to strategize effectively. Why should it be any different? He was the king that the astrals had chosen to rule. They’d never allow him to come to harm.
Or so he’d thought. The expression in those eyes promised a slow death.
“It wasn’t my fault that you wouldn’t die! I told you that healing them like that was the wrong move!” He spat without his usual force. He’d been cowed, and he hated it. “I just wanted the throne that was mine.” It should have been quick, but Ardyn had chosen his own fate.
Alterna had drained his magic, but enough time had passed that Somnus felt it start to swirl back to him. This was probably his last chance. Summoning his sword back to his hand, Somnus thrust upward with the blade. He didn’t expect it to make contact, but he was counting on Ardyn to retaliate, and he raised his hand with the ring to prepare his counterattack.
“Holy.” It would drain the last of his magic, but it was probably the most effective in his arsenal against this monster. Choke on that, daemon.
The weight felt good beneath his boot. Flesh, bleeding, squirming. Yes, writhe for him! Fix him with that look of hatred! Let it burn as it had in him for millennia! Oh, that fear! That defeat! It caught his breath like the most brilliant of sunsets! Kneel for me, brother! Kneel and beg for mercy!
”Oh dear! Such a victim!” He gave another sharp wrench of his foot, leaning in until his full weight felt as though it might crack beneath him. ”A loathsome assassin! Tell me, what did the Oracle say? Was it not I who was chosen! Did you not usurp that which was mine by right?” He sneered and watched him gasp for breath. How would he gasp in a cave sealed with the stench of rot and stale air?”Your greed betrays you!”
There was a sudden flash behind Somnus’ eyes. Ardyn sensed the strike before he saw it, and he parried it easily on the edge of his blade. Still, he did not expect the word that came next, spat between gritted teeth.
”Holy.”
”What?!”
Ardyn hardly had time to speak before he was seared with the hottest of fire. He staggered back, hissing in pain as he held his arms before him to shield himself from that terrible, blinding light. He felt his humanity drain away from him -- felt a cold, dark power seep from his blood in a protective haze. Kill him. His eyes shot in tainted yellow. The color drained pallid from his skin, and he felt a dark ooze drip down his cheek. A snarl settled in his throat.
Kill him.
He shot forward in a burst of shadow, kicking his brother so hard that he splinted into a nearby tree. In a flash, he’d seized his throat, lifting him easily with one hand.
Kill him! Turn him! Take him!
Ardyn paused. No. He would do this right. How anticlimactic if he ended it in a mere moment. He chuckled to himself. ”Nearly lost my head,” he said before releasing his grip. Somnus landed heavily at his feet, gasping and clutching at his wounds. Ardyn’s blood still pumped hard with the chill of corruption. He knelt beside him, smiling through blackened teeth.
”Let’s play a game, shall we?” He seized Somnus’ throat and pinned him to the ground. ”Given the choice, will you face the fire?” He thrust his darkness into his palm, past the skin, and into Somnus’ blood. He felt a familiar shudder pass through him, and he saw it -- flashes like a movie reel.
The waves crashing against a distant shore. The throne, cold beneath his palms. A woman veiled and dressed in white. Two children -- a boy in black and an amber-haired girl with a wide grin. It rushed into him like a drug, and he gasped his ecstasy.
No, no! He mustn’t go too far!
Ardyn wrenched his grip away, looking at his hand in disgust. His brother had gone pale. Yes, that was enough.
Ardyn stood. ”I am the monster you made me,” he said. ”What kind of monster will you become, I wonder.”
Ardyn recoiled back after being struck with Holy, and Somnus took the opportunity to scramble back a second before stasis hit him as hard as a chocobo-drawn carriage. He hissed between his teeth at the uncomfortable dizzy feeling as he shakily pulled himself to his feet. He’d used the remnants of his magic to get Ardyn off him, but he had expected that particular spell to be devastating to the daemons in his elder brother’s skin.
Somnus had just retrieved his sword from the ground when Ardyn looked up, and Somnus flinched a bit at the appearance of the man’s face, though he had seen it once before after Aera had died. His skin had gone deathly pale, and black scourge filled his eyes and dripped down his cheeks, giving him the appearance of having black sclera surrounding his yellow eyes.
“Monster,” he breathed, as an inhuman snarl sounded from the creature’s throat a moment before he attacked. Somnus would have warped away were he not still trapped in stasis, and though he reached into his armiger for an ether, he was too late as he was kicked hard enough to knock him off his feet. His back crashed into a nearby tree, but he scarcely had time to catch his breath before a hand tightened around his throat and hauled him off his feet.
Choking, he scrambled at the hand cutting off his airflow, his nails cutting into the man’s wrist though he didn’t appear to notice. He tried to call a blade back to his hand, but it was getting difficult to think, and just as his vision started spotting with black, the hand released him. Landing hard on the grass at the tree’s base, Somnus gasped in a breath as he clutched at his sore throat.
He was aware of Ardyn kneeling next to him, and he glowered at the man and his false smile. “I refuse to play your petty game-” he started before his already bruised throat was grabbed and he was pushed down hard into the grass. Somnus tried to get leverage to kick the larger man off him when the hand at his neck suddenly turned freezing. He gasped in a breath as the feeling started flooding through his veins like fire. What was happening? His whole body was seizing in pain, and disjointed images of his life were flooding through his mind. Hunting with Gilgamesh. A chess board. Napping with his chocobo in the stables. His children’s shrieks as they played in the palace. The heat of the fire as a village corrupted by the starscourge burned.
Somnus wasn’t sure how long it went on for, but when he finally swirled back to consciousness, Ardyn was standing over him and gloating. Baring his teeth, Somnus scrambled back from the man, taking a moment before realizing that neither his throat nor his chest still hurt from the wounds he had just received. Still, there was an almost itchy feeling inside of his body. Something wasn’t quite right.
“What did you do?” He spat, a split second before a coughing fit struck him. Bending over with the force of his hacking, he was startled to feel something wet hit his palm as a foul taste sprung up in his mouth. Straightening up, Somnus stared at the black liquid trickling between his fingers uncomprehendingly before realization struck and his hand clenched into a fist.
“This is how you would end it?” He wasn’t sure if the noise he made while looking up at his brother was a laugh or a sob, but he thought the answer lay somewhere in between. “At least I always stuck to my convictions. What a fine healer you turned out to be.” Something wet was trickling from the corner of his mouth, and Somnnus brushed it off with the back of his hand. He didn’t have to look down again to know it would be black.
Oh Somnus. My dear, sweet brother! You deserve that venomous look in your eye. And do I sense a hint of fear?
”What did you do?” Somnus coughed heavily, a wet, sickly cough that nearly seized him in its throes. Once he’d finished, he looked to his hand in shock. Black corruption oozed between his fingers. Now where did that come from, he wondered?
”This is how you would end it?”Yes, yes! There was that panic! A kind of horrified laughter burst from Somnus in a way it never had before. Though his words were sharp, there was terror in them. ”At least I always stuck to my convictions. What a fine healer you turned out to be.”
”Hm.” Ardyn touched at his chin, head angled as he played at consideration. ”But you should know that mercy is unbefitting of monsters. And who brought me to this, I wonder?”
Oh dear, was he feeling bitter? How long had it been since he’d tasted irony on his tongue? He supposed that now was as good a time as any.
”Two thousand years of darkness,” he mused. ”Oh, but you must have known me incapable of death. You had seen it time and time again, had you not?”
He paced away, truly thoughtful now. Terrible visions clouded his mind. Visions of chains and shadows and the scurrying rats that he grew so fond of. They were a break from the endless monotony, he’d thought. Behind him, he heard a familiar voice given ethereal echo.
’Yes, and I would do it again, brother. Were you not worthy of it?’
His eyes grew dark. Even now, Somnus haunted his mind.
”But then perhaps not. You did not witness your judgment after all. Shall I pierce your sides in chains? Shall I string you from until the weight is suffocating? Shall your stomach shrivel until you feel neither hunger nor thirst in their own unending agony?” He spat the last words like black venom. ”Perhaps I shall return your favor. Should you not claim your own life, that is.”
How he would like to watch it. Somnus, brought to the same death he had inflicted on so many others with nary a bat of his eye! But he would never follow through, would he? He valued his own life above all others. His terror would still his hand.
”Goodbye, brother.” Ardyn left him, turning away from the firelight and into the shadows once more. ”I shall grant you the mercy of the choice I never had.”
Ardyn taunted him--Somnus had known he would, and that’s why he did his best to hold in the icy terror that gnawed at him the longer that he stared at the inky black liquid staining his palm. The Scourge. It had always been a possibility that he’d contract the disease, of course. That was why he spared villages no mercy once enough of the population had contracted it. It was far too contagious to let lie, and even going near a place like that was always a risk. Still, no amount of mental preparation could have helped with this. Somnus wanted to scream and tear at his own insides, anything to get his brother’s tainted magic out of him. The only thing that stayed his hand was that he refused to give Ardyn the satisfaction of witnessing his full horror at the situation.
“You’re right. What does a monster know of mercy?” he spat instead, using one hand to drag himself to a standing position by grabbing onto the tree he had been thrown against. It was sticky with his own blood, but he barely felt his wounds anymore. They were nothing compared to the cold spreading through his body. He didn’t feel sick so much as wrong.
Ardyn hurled accusations at him like spears, and Somnus raised his chin slightly in defiance. “You had changed yourself into an abomination that refused to die. How else were we to hold you in place?” The words lacked his usual confidence, and he continued bitterly before Ardyn could savor that too thoroughly. “What a choice that is then. To be strung up as a daemon or flung into the fire.”
Was it easier to face if he spoke so bluntly? No, but perhaps he could fool himself into thinking it was. He’d burned enough people alive to know how painful a fate that was, and yet the glint in Ardyn’s eyes promised that it would be the merciful path to take. He’d more than proven that he wouldn’t hesitate to follow through on his other threats.
Ardyn turned to leave, and his mocking farewell made Somnus’ lips twist into a snarl. “You had every choice until it was too late! I told you healing one person at a time would only make everything worse!” His brother had vanished amongst the shadows, and Somnus swung the back of his fist against the tree behind him, uncaring when the tree bark cut into his hand. Part of him wanted to chase after Ardyn and demand that he take it back, but what good would that do? Perhaps if he begged enough, then Ardyn would get bored of him faster. That was all. And Somnus wasn’t sure that he could ever bring himself to kneel to that undeserving creature. Even now.
The sun had set fully during their battle, and darkness spilled over the clearing as the final remnants of fire from his earlier spell sputtered out. And yet, Somnus was no longer afraid of what might lurk in the dark. He had already faced the worst thing that it had to offer. What could a common daemon do to him now?
“Come out then!” Somnus cried a tad hysterically, spreading his arms and staggering back towards the path. “You couldn’t stop with your visions all day, and surely night is your domain! Come lead me astray!”
Nothing. The wind whistled quietly through the trees along with the chirping of crickets, and for the first time all day, Somnus couldn’t feel any malevolent presence in this forest. It was if the woods had given up on him. Like he was already one of them.
“Why?” Somnus’ voice cracked, and he had to pause to cough up more dark fluid that he spat onto the forest floor. “Tell me why, astrals? Why would you allow this? Surely you can’t intend this to be the end of my story? After I was chosen?” Of course they didn’t respond--the Draconian had nothing to say to him since he had woken up here, but for the first time the silence made something hot and angry bubble up inside him. Raising his hand up towards the treetops, Somnus closed his fist with the ring on it and focused all his attention on feeling for his bond with Bahamut. If the king of the astrals refused to hear his prayers, then Somnus would use the power that he’d been given to drag him here and-
Pain. Sharp and hot on his finger. Gasping, Somnus cradled his hand before he realized the problem and quickly wrenched the Ring of the Lucii off his finger. It lay still and innocent-looking on his palm, but his eyes sought instead the patch of burned flesh around his middle finger. It was raised and looked likely to scar, but he wasn't concerned with the actual wound. It only screamed at him what he didn’t want to accept. The ring had rejected him.
Curling his fingers around the cold metal, Somnus threw his head back and laughed towards the heavens. Maybe the astrals would hear it. Or maybe if he laughed hard enough, he could pretend that his vision wasn’t obscured from blackened tears.
